The influenza virus undergoes rapid and frequent antigen shifts that usually force seasonal vaccine updating. The mismatch between vaccine strains and circulating viruses leads to limited vaccine effectiveness, mainly in immunocompromised and older individuals.

Patients receiving a kidney transplant and who are positive for BK virus (BKV) are at risk of losing their transplant due to BKV reactivation. At this time, there are no antiviral options available for the prevention of BKV-associated nephropathy. Researchers from Aicuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH presented preclinical data on AIC-468, an antisense RNA therapy that inhibits the splicing process of a viral mRNA encoding a protein critical for BKV replication.

Wall Street promptly began trying to weigh the compound’s marketplace odds after Merck & Co. Inc. detailed positive data from the phase IIb/III trial known as MK-1654-004 with clesrovimab, an investigational prophylactic monoclonal antibody designed to protect infants from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease during their first RSV season. The results, plus interim findings from the ongoing phase III experiment dubbed MK-1654-007 were offered during IDWeek 2024 in Los Angeles.

At the IDWeek 2023 infectious disease conference, Rachelle Koch, a medical student from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, presented the work done in David Greenberg’s Lab on a new strategy to tackle Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections using D-peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (D-PPMOs). P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen showing a multidrug-resistance (MDR) pattern that is at the root of significant morbidity and mortality, especially in immunocompromised patients with severe chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

During the IDWeek conference held in Boston earlier this month, presentations on Climate Change were spread throughout the program. Some talks were on the direct effects of weather on infectious agents. Others discussed what healthcare workers could do to mitigate the effects of climate change, from antibiotic stewardship to decarbonization of day to day operations.

Researchers from Eradivir Inc. and affiliated organizations presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of EV-21, a dual mechanism antiviral immunotherapy for the treatment of influenza infections. EV-21 was designed as a ligand-targeted drug conjugate, developed by linking the neuraminidase inhibitor zanamivir to two distinct haptens that bind to two different naturally occurring antibodies in humans. As a result, the candidate acts though a dual mechanism of action, which consists of potent recruitment of the human immune system to recognize and destroy free viruses and virus-infected cells.